Rain, Splits, and Zone Conference

Dear Family,

What a wonderful week it has been here in Tamatave.  I know that Brock and I say that every week, but really, every week is just bliss.  So, first of all I am glad to hear that everyone is healthy and happy.  SMILE!  I love hearing from all of you, it makes happy to hear from everyone. 

So, much rain came down this week.  Like, more than I would like, but that is not in my control.  Attitude and Effort, right coach? So, I want to start with the beginning of my week.  Last Monday, we were eating at a small chicken place where the owner tried to please us by playing American music... from the 80's!  I was brought back to the times with dad just being able to know every single creepy 80's song on pandora.  We heard Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Billy Idol, and the gogo's to name a few. It was really cool to hear all of it. I think that we are going to that same place today.  To follow that, this week was great as we spent every day on foot. My bike chain broke and we dont have the parts here in Tamatave to fix it.  So... we were literally walking through puddles that were knee deep sometimes.  And the water, or "water" is so so so gross.  I swear I had like leeches in my socks.  This week came really quick.  Friday came upon me and before I knew it the AP's were at my house for the zone conference that we had on Saturday.  We went on a split Friday night and I felt really bad because we just contacted for like two hours straight.  Didnt really get much except for one crazy guy, who said he would come to church, and actually came.  But I wanna share the joys of this last zone conference.  President Adams is quite the teacher, in an extremely spiritual, harsh way. He grills you until you have to think on your own and actually come up with good, solid answers.  He grilled me pretty hard.  We talked all about the law of sacrifice, and even more the law of concecration and how making them effective in our lives can help us recieve a place in the celestial kingdom with our Heavenly Father.  Thats the goal.  It was such a great meeting. And, the coolest thing happened too... We got to watch Meet the Mormons.  I guess the church wants all the missionaries to see it, so we actually got to watch it.  Cool movie, I got really trunky when  the football coaches segment was on.  Man, I miss football.  Sunday was really stressful because Pres. Adams visited our Branch and of course nothing went right.  Then, later that afternoon, we could not get this drunk guy to stop following us.  He told us that we were french and didnt understand Malagasy... even though we were speaking to him in Malagasy.  Then we tried to lose him (we first tried to make him fall in a puddle, then we tried to run) but he always ended up walking next to us trying to put his arm around us.  Ohhh, it was funny to say the least.  I am so grateful to be serving here and enjoying the blessings that my Father in Heaven give me.  I love being a missionary.  Here are a few pics from the week. 

All my Love

Elder Herrin

Me, trying to sleep before heading out to work on Sunday

A random house whose padio cover was being held up by 3 posts that werent touching the ground... Malagasy construction...

Pretty Boring Week

Dear Family

First of all, Happy Birthday Mom!  Happy Valentines Day!  And Happy first Anniversary to Kirk and Alex!  I know I am about 2 days late, but its the best I could do.  Just know that I thought about all three of those things.  How a year ago I was at the Oakland temple witnessing a marriage and getting to spend the day with family at the temple was amazing.  I miss the temple.  How are you all doing. Is love still in the air, its definitely not here.  No one even knows what that is.  I pray that you are all happy and healthy this week, just like last week. 

My week was much different than most other weeks.  We spent a lot of time contacting people.  Which meant a lot of time on bikes, outside, in the rain.  It poured for three days straight.  Now, my area is called Andranomadio.  Which means clean water.  Yaa, pretty funny cause its the exact opposite.  Our area is known for how dirty it can be.  It is also hard to get around in our area when there is rain. This is because there are huge, I mean huge, ponds of water that are deeper than they should be.  My companion and I usually get our ankles soaked in water just from pedling.  One day, we got up to our thighs in water... we ended up just walking.  I probably was walking in people waste, cancer, condoms, and who knows what.  I may have a sad look on my face in the picture, but I was so happy to be working.  Also, during this week, my companion was sick so we had like a sick day where I just kind of got some cleaning done around the house, cleaned my bike, did some studying... And, with the new responsibilities that I have accumulated, all of Saturday was spent in meetings.  The first was with Pres. Adams, and we couldnt get skype to work because there wasnt any power here in Tamatave. So, we just sat with a little phone held between both of our ears and tried to listen to the 3 hour meeting, then we had another meeting right after that with the district pres, and the branch pres, in the district.  We, as missionaries, have to teach the leaders how to be leaders. It amazes me how well the church runs in America after seeing it here in Mada.  I wonder how Branch Counsil runs in America, cause I know that it is not right here.  Sunday was nice, other than the fact that we started 25 minutes late.  We got a lot of tracting done, and then the District President has all 12 missionaries over for dinner every Sunday.  Its wonderful.  I have such an appreciation for the organization of the church.  I know that because we have a living prophet, the way the church runs is exaclty the way that God intended.  I love this gospel and know that it is true.  I love you so much.

All my Love

Elder Herrin

This is my 3 year old girlfriend.  I said bye to her two weeks ago.  Such a cutie

This is the elders, my branch pres, and the first counselor.  My last night in Fort D...

Thats really how deep the water is

Tamatave

Dear Family,

How are we all doing this wonderful week?  One month of 2015 already down... crazy right?  I pray for you and always am hoping that you are doing well.  So... not to get all selfish on you all, but I had a pretty great week that I would love to tell you all about.

So, it was extremely sad to be leaving Fort D.  We had our last soiree with our Branch President on Monday, and left on Tuesday morning.  I didnt really say goodbye to anyone.  So, Tuesday morning I got on a flight to Tana.  Pretty mediocre flight.  Peanuts and a cup of juice.  The rest of the day was just hanging out at the office.  We stayed the night with the AP's then got up Wednesday morning really early and were at a bus stop that was taking me and one other elder to Tamatave.  I went with Elder Tiu.  He is deffinitely Asian American.  He doesnt talk... at all, so we got along great.  I tried to sleep, didnt happen.  8 hours later, we arrived in Tamatave.  It is very very very hot here.  I am also on bikes.  My new comp picked me up from the bus stop and I was expecting to put my luggage in a taxi home, but we just bot a little pus pus for my luggage, and we rode our bikes home behind the pus.  The work here goes pretty well.  We are teaching around 20ish lessons a week.  My companion is great.  Elder Bowler is his name, and he is NOT from Utah.  (Gasps everywhere) He is a funny kid who is great at the language.  So, this week not a whole lot happened.  I am trying to learn a new area, a new leadership position, and how to be a better missionary.  I think I might have to swich the way I do my hair becuase the helmet that i have to wear is definitely messing my hair up.  Not ok with me.  So I ride my bike in all sorts of sand, which makes it really hard to go straight.  I have already hit a bambo fence, fallen once, and made myself look pretty silly.  Its all part of the process right?  Ohh, so we did have a baptism this week.  I didnt know the guy at all, but it was cool to be apart of another baptism here.  I know that this gospel is true, that it brings the family the most happiness.  I know that this work is what I need to be doing right now in this part of my life.  I know that we recieve more blessings as we are more obedient to following the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Thanks for all the support and love that you send.  I love you all so much.

Elder Herrin

This week's pics

Four Missionaries and 3 Bandits... Sitting in the same car

Dear Family,

Wow, what a week.  First, I need to apologize for not writing that much last week.  I will do better at that, I promise!  Secondly, I need to kind of prepare you all for this weeks letter.  I am going to blow your minds with the story that I have for this week.  Now, before I start with that I just want to say that I love you all and that I hope you are all happy and healthy! 

So I am going to start with the big story that I have.  Wednesday, January 28th 2015.  Elder Herrin and Elder Yeagley were coming home from a great days work.  Like six times of teaching and over 5 hours of proselyting time.  We were quite happy with our day.  As we were walking up the stairs to our house we could tell that something wasnt quite right... We walked in the door and the two other elders were in there with panicked looks on thier faces.  They immediately said "We were robbed, everything is gone, the window is open...." Yaa so my heart kind of sank and I ran into my room.  My camera was gone, the little amount of money that I had was gone, my camera cards, the dvd player that we use, I mean anything that you can think of was gone.  They got a good amount of my stuff.  So I quickly scanned and noticed that it was true, we had been robbed. I quickly walked into the living room where the other elders stood in confusion.  Elder Fisher, the oldest of us all, said something rather wise.  He stated that he knew who the bandit was.  And after that we all left.  We went to chase down our bandit.  I will have you know that it is now about 10 at night.  We went to one house, not there. However, someone knew where he was.  We didnt share the reason that we were searching for our friend, just that it was quite important.  (I should note, that this man we are looking for is a less active member of the other branch in Fort Dauphin) So we were on the road with a guy who said he knew where we could find Olivier.  Thats the kids name who Elder Fisher figured stole from our house.  We showed up to his house and ... he was not home.  By this time the malagasies could tell something was up so everyone and thier mom were out of their house.  We talked to the landlord (if thats what you wanna call it) and we asked if it would be ok if we entered the home of this young man named Olivier.  He said of course and let us in.  What would you know, we came across the majority of our stuff in this small little shack of a home.  We found my chapstick, my companions tooth brush, three of the four cameras, a bag of ours, basically most of the stuff.  I sat in the house with Elder Fisher while the other two went back to our house to get the phone charger.  While they were out we talked to our mission pres, and branch pres.  We had the branch pres, and the police coming.  Ill get back to the police in a sec.  So while I was waiting in the house I heard a really big russel outside the house.  Appearently, Olivier had come home and had seen the big crowd of people at his house.  First instict... RUN.  Not on Elder Johnsons watch.  Elder Johnson, in flip flops and pros clothes on, leaped and tackled the bandit to the ground.  There was some resistance, but I tell you, "Johny" wrapped him up with great form so that he could not get away.  The next hour and half, Elder Fisher and I sat in Oliviers house with him.  He denied having part in any of the breaking and stealing... So now to the police.  Elder Johnson went and got picked up by our Branch President to go pick up the Police.  Yes, to GO PICK UP THE POLICE.  They informed us when we called that they had no working vehicles at the moment so they needed a ride... Oh Madagascar!  So Elder J and Y went to pick them up.  They showed up to the scene in shorts, flip flops, holding an AK - 47. I was astonished, but whatever works right.  The first thing they did is hand cuffed the Bandit.  Then we left to where the Bandit said the "real bandits" were.  We walked to another house and we didnt walk in, just the police.  They came out ten minutes later with some the rest of our stuff and about a fifth of the money that we lost.  And two more small teenagers in handcuffs.  We walked (now about 11:30) to the car that picked us up to go to the police station.  Talk about an awkward bus ride.  All the missionaries, 3 bondis, a driver and branch president.  When we got to the Police station we just dropped off the kids and basically left.  We were told to come back first thing in the morning to do the paperwork, the statement, the whole deal.  As we got in the car to drive away, we saw the very sad way the Gov. runs here.  The 3 teenagers were starting to get beat by the six drunk police officers that were there.  It literally was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to witness.  I felt so bad for those young men.  So the next morning we were at the Police Station for about 5 hours.  We sat for a lot of it.  Then we had to give a statement, retrieve our stolen items and do all that annoying stuff.  There should be a trial, but Im not sure if they are going to do one.  Anyway, that happened. Fun times.  We also had a baptism this week.  I was able to baptize an 11 year old who is in a part member family.  His name is Bien Venue.  Great kid.  Then we got transfer news. I unfortunately am leaving Fort Dauphin.  I am going to another beach province but its just not the same as Fort Dizzle.  I am so great though.  No one can take my spirirt from me.  Thats all that I need here in Mada.  I mean, its nice with a camera, and money, but none of that stuff goes with us to heaven right?  I love you all so much and send my love from here in Mada. 

Elder Herrin